MarketReportsOnline.com now has the new Business Monitor International Report “Italy Metals Report Q4 2012” in its store.

Online PR News – 31-October-2012 – Dallas/Texas – BMI''s Italy Metals Report for Q4 2012 examines the causes of the sudden slowdown in the Italian steel industry in H212 and examines whether the country will regain the volumes it reported before the 2008 financial crisis. The report examines how metals producers are responding to the challenges posed by an increasingly precarious external macroeconomic environment. These challenges have affected exports and had an impact on the Italian consumer. The report considers these issues and also assesses the ability of producers and exporters to realise returns in the short term.

In the first seven months of 2012, Italian crude steel output fell 0.7% y-o-y to 17.3mn tonnes (mnt), a rate of decline far lower than the EU rate of -4.6%. Italy retained its position as the EU''s second largest steelmaking country with a 16.7% share of production. According to the Italian steel producers'' association Federacciai, in H112 Italy''s steel imports totalled 7.42mnt, down 27.4% y-o-y, while its steel exports totalled 9.92mnt, up 10.3% y-o-y. The main problems Italy will face over our forecast period are similar to those seen over the past 20 years: low business productivity; insufficient investment in high technology industries; disadvantageous demographics; and of course the labour market. A significant downside risk is the rising cost of
electricity. With two-thirds of Italian crude steel output produced by electric arc furnaces, compared to 25-40% in other major steel producing nations in Western Europe, margins are under greater threat.

The cost of energy has also impacted negatively on the aluminium industry with Alcoa planning to take offline its loss-making 150,000tpa Portovesme aluminium smelter by end-October if no buyers are found. Glencore, Klesch and wind energy company KiteGen showed interest in acquiring the Portovesme smelter in September 2012.

In the event of no sale, the closure of the Portovesme smelter would undermine the
competitiveness of downstream aluminium alloy and metal works industries, which will be
reliant on foreign producers for supplies due to the lack of primary metal.

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